Women sell souvenirs, local food and fruit in front of a souvenir shop in Vietnam’s central historic town of Hoi An, a UNESCO world heritage site. Photo: Reuters

For the first time ever, the historic town of Hoi An has been voted one of the top 10 cities in Asia by the annual Readers’ Choice Awards held by Condé Nast Traveler, the world’s premier travel magazine.

Condé Nast Traveler announced October 16 the results of its 25th annual Readers’ Choice Awards, which ranks the best cities, islands, cruise lines, airlines, hotels, and resorts worldwide.

Located in Quang Nam Province along Vietnam’s central coast, Hoi An was ranked eighth among the top 10 Asian cities by readers who voted Bangkok number one.

Readers ranked two resorts in Hoi An – Life Heritage Resort Hoi An and The Nam Hai – 10th and 14th respectively, among the top 15 resorts in Asia.

This year, the Sofitel Legend Metropole of Hanoi, the Park Hyatt Saigon and the Sheraton Saigon Hotel & Towers all broke into Condé Nast Traveler’s list of top 20 hotels in Southeast Asia, earning respective rankings of third, fourth and 10th respectively.

The Readers’ Choice survey, established in 1988, was available this year to readers online at condenasttraveler.com/vote. The 46,476 responses to a questionnaire containing lists of nominees in various categories were tabulated by Global Market Insite, Inc. of Boston.

Readers rated each nominee based on various criteria along a five-point scale: excellent, very good, good, fair, and poor.

Earlier this year, Hanoi and Hoi An were named among the top 10 destinations in Asia for 2011 after an online poll by the Hong Kong-based travel and trade journal, Smart Travel Asia.

In that poll – which drew over 1 million responses from people worldwide between May and July of last year – Hanoi tied Shanghai (China) for sixth place, while Hoi An tied Rajastan (India) and Seoul (South Korea) for seventh place.